She Picked Up
by MARVELous life
Summary: Set during a scene in The Avengers. Tony called, but she never heard or saw her phone ringing. Would things have been drastically different if Pepper answered? Or would the only thing changed be the amount of hope in Tony's heart?


**DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE AVENGERS! If you have seen it or don't mind the fact that this contains a major spoiler, then read on!**

**Written because I seriously believe that Pepper should have answered her phone. I cried a bit when she didn't, making for a grand total of three consecutive cries and one stand-alone cry. I can't do crap about my emotions at a midnight movie; I'm too hyper. :D **

**Disclaimer: To my great dismay, I don't own The Avengers or anything else Marvel related.**

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"Shall I try Miss Potts?" Jarvis's voice sounded inside of Tony's Iron Man helmet.

"Might as well," Tony responded. He was losing power in his suit from the force required to carry the nuke and decided that if he was going to use it all up, he might as well use some of it to call the girl he loved.

Pepper's voice came through after the second ring. "Tony, what are you doing?" She demanded. He figured that she was watching him on TV; watching him flying closer and closer to the portal.

"Keeping New York from blowing up," Tony said.

"By flying through a portal into space while carrying an active nuclear weapon?" Pepper screeched.

"Power at seven percent," Jarvis informed Tony. He sped up. He was almost to the portal.

"Pepper, I have to do this."

"What if you don't come back, Tony?" Pepper asked quietly and hesitantly.

"I promise I'll come back. I love you too much not to, Pepper," Tony said, just as quietly.

"I lo-" Pepper's voice was cut off as Tony flew into the portal.

"Power at three percent, sir." Tony continued to fly forward, determined to get as close to the giant space ship as possible before releasing the missile.

"Power depleted," Jarvis said about a minute later. Tony let go of the missile just as his suit shut down. He began to fall backwards though space, his flight power gone.

He watched with heavy lids as the missile made contact with the bad guy's space ship. He watched it explode. His eyes slowly closed as his arc reactor stopped glowing. He knew that the portal was closing behind him. His last thought was one of hope. He hoped that he would make it back through the portal and somehow live, just to see Pepper again. A picture on a screen simply wasn't enough.

On the plane, Pepper watched with anxious eyes as Black Widow managed to shut down the portal. She gripped the armrest as it began to close and Tony still hadn't flown back through. She began to cry, thinking that Tony wouldn't make it back. She hadn't even gotten to finish telling him that she loved him, or even say goodbye.

"Tony!" She shouted with joy. There, on the screen, she saw Tony fall back through the portal. But that was the problem. He was _falling_ through the portal; not _flying_ like her ought to be.

"Tony!" Pepper shouted again, this time out of fear. The camera that was filming it all zoomed in on her falling boyfriend and she saw that the eyes of his helmet weren't lit up. Neither was his arc reactor.

"Iron Man's suit isn't lighting up. Is he still alive?" A reporter's voice came through the TV. No one outside of Tony's circle knew that the arc reactor kept him alive. Pepper wanted to scream at the reporter all the same, though, for asking a question that had an obvious answer to her.

Back in New York, Captain America and Thor watched as Tony came back through the portal just before it closed, minus the nuke. Around them, the bad guys dropped to the ground.

"He did it," Steve said in amazement. "He really did it."

Steve and Thor watched as Iron Man fell through the sky. They were too far down to realize right away that Tony's suit was not lit up and that he was not flying down, but falling instead.

"He's not slowing down," Thor said as Tony drew closer to the asphalt at a break neck speed. Thor began to twirl his hammer in a circular motion, getting ready to fly up and catch Tony, when the Hulk appeared out of nowhere.

Jumping through the sky, Dr. Bruce Banner in Hulk form smashed into the unconscious Tony. He wrapped an arm protectively around him as the two smashed into a building. Hulk tried to slow their descent by digging his free hand into the side of the building, but they were going too fast for it to really slow them.

Hulk leapt away from the building and towards the ground. He still had enough sense about him to know that he needed to protect Tony. Hulk rolled in the air and smashed into the ground on his back, taking as much of the impact away from Tony as he could.

The force of the impact caused Hulk's arm to flail to side, releasing Tony and sending him rolling across the ground. Steve and Thor hurried over to Tony, hoping that he was okay. Thor ripped away the helmet as Steve pressed his ear to Tony's chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat through the metal. Neither of them fully understood that without the arc reactor working, Tony couldn't live at all. The two thought that it only helped it him live a bit; that it wasn't the only thing that kept Tony alive.

Without warning, Tony's eyes shot open and he gasped for air. He looked down and wondered briefly what had caused his arc reactor to start working again before he noticed how close Steve and Thor were to his face.

"What happened?" He asked. "Please tell me nobody kissed me." Steve and Thor smiled with relief. Their teammate was alive. Greatly weakened, but alive.

"We won," Captain America told Tony, who was still lying on the ground. Tony smiled.

"Is he okay?" Natasha called out as he hurried over with Clint. How she had gotten down from the top of Stark Tower that fast, no one knew.

"He's fine now," Thor said.

"Where's my helmet?" Tony asked. Thor gestured to a spot a feet from Tony's head. "I'm going to have to fix that now," Tony moaned. He couldn't just put the helmet back on and use it like normal if it had been ripped from the suit.

Suddenly, something clicked in his head. "I need a phone," He announced. "Point Break here just ruined mine."

"You had a phone in your helmet?" Steve asked.

"A phone, my butler, some other things," Tony said nonchalantly. Even Hulk managed to look impressed at what Tony was able to do.

"Here," Natasha said. She pulled her phone out from her gun holster. It was one of the advantages of having a holster in the first place.

Tony wasted no time in dialing the number that he knew by heart. "Please pick up, Pepper," He muttered. Thor's brow furrowed in confusion. Who calls an herb?

Natasha, on the other hand, simply smiled. Tony Stark had changed so much since she worked for him. His priorities had changed from fixing his suit, taking a nap, and eating a cheeseburger right after a mission to calling Pepper.

Pepper, recognizing Natasha's phone number, answered her phone immediately.

"Is he okay?" She expected Natasha to regretfully inform her that Tony's chest wasn't lighting up; that he was truly dead. She didn't think she would be able to handle that if Natasha told her that, though.

"Pepper, thank God," Tony's voice came through the line.

"Tony!" She exclaimed. "How did you…" She trailed off.

"Even I'm not sure, Pep. But hey, I'm alive now!" A comfortable silence settled over the line as the two relished in the fact that the other was alive. Then Pepper took the offensive.

"Don't you dare ever do something like that again!" She yelled into the phone.

Tony cracked a smile from where he was still lying on the ground – he didn't quite have the energy to get up yet. Clint smirked a bit as he heard Pepper's shouts. Tony decided that he'd get him later.

"No promises, Pep," Tony said.

"You're crazy, Tony Stark," Pepper said through the phone.

"And you love me for it. Just as I love you, Pepper." At hearing this, the other Avengers can honestly say that they were shocked. They had never seen this side of Tony; didn't know he even _had_ this side.

"And I love you, Tony," Pepper said, happy that she finally got to finish her earlier sentence. The line settled back into silence. The Avengers remained a little shocked as they heard Pepper's voice reciprocate Tony's feelings without a hint of hesitation of doubtfulness. None of them could imagine Tony Stark as a man in love, with a girl that loved him back.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked playfully.

"That will be all, Mrs. Potts." The two hung up their phones, ending the call with their comfortable, normal banter.

Tony would never admit it to anyone except for Pepper, but just hearing her voice again gave him the strength to get back up and the hope and will to finish this fight. He put back up the walls that he only let down for Pepper, ignoring the fact his teammates had just been allowed a small glimpse behind those walls. He stood up of his own accord, his talk with Pepper having giving him more strength than he knew.

"Who's ready to go kick some butt?" Tony's teammates nodded their heads and didn't bring up what they had just witnessed. Each and every one of them understood that they had not been meant to see that special side of Tony, but that he had allowed them a small look at it because he desperately wanted to speak to Pepper.

_For Pepper,_ Tony thought as he took off to find Loki with his teammates. For Pepper – not for himself, not for his house, cars, robots, and technology, not for Fury, not for SHIELD, not even for the world as a whole, but for Pepper - he would make sure that The Avengers would win this battle and every one after it.

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**What do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Leave a review, please! Stick around, I've got another oneshot coming tomorrow - it's called 'A Place that Only they Know'. I've been churning out Marvel related fics since my weekend-long Marvel Marathon. **


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